Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -2/20- Colts Offseason Plan Could Become Clear Early In Free Agency

Episode Date: February 20, 2017

Rumors will swirl this time of year, but a few of them make a ton of sense for the #Colts moving forward, yet some are equally less likely to sure up specific positions of need. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. No, I'm not for sale. You are lockeded On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Matt Dainley, and thank you for joining me back here on this Monday, February 20th. And let's just kick it right off. We don't have a ton of news necessarily to start with.

But, of course, the mock drafts are going wild right now. We've talked to a few guys, most recently Brent Sobleski. And he had us go through or we went through his first 15 picks with him where he had the Colts taken Dalvin Cook in the first round there. And if you guys listen to that, it was a little long, but I think as far as what it appears is through the listenership that you guys are enjoying those longer podcasts. Also, you know, get in touch with me. Let me know what you guys think. You like the little short 20 minute deals. You guys like the 45 minutes to an hour or something like that. You know, we're going to keep the majority of them around the 20 minute mark, 25 or so, but let me know if you guys like those. I try to do those

at the end of the week, kind of give you guys a little more to chew on throughout the weekend. And, um, I think we'll probably more than likely stick to that. Uh, but let me know if you guys, what you guys think about that. And, and we'll and we'll try to get that rounded out for you and try to keep that about as constant as possible. We've got mock drafts going up. We've got potential free agents all over the place, and there's a couple that kind of stuck out to me. One of them was Andy Benoit from MMQB. He did a piece on the 25 players who could get even richer in free agency. And there was three of them that he kind of said that would fit the Colts or that they would be one of the fits for them. One of them is Brandon Williams. We've talked about him. He's a defensive

tackle for the Ravens. I really like that because of his age and his ability. He's very good getting into the backfield. He's also good, a guy who can take up multiple blockers. He can handle the double team. He's 27. He's a little more apt for the nose tackle position, which is something that the Colts kind of need. We had T.Y. McGill kind of moonlighting there for a little bit. Also, Zach Kerr's been in and out of that position for a little bit, and also David Perry. So we've got people that can fit there. We just don't have really guys who are making a real difference there. Those mainly Perry who have been taking that position more often than not. So Brandon Williams will be a huge upgrade. He'd

also be pretty expensive, but Colts have plenty of money. We, you know, even one of the things that Brent pointed out in our last podcast on Friday was that these got the Colts and these teams with all this money, they don't have to spend all that money. The, the, the problem comes in is when you either do too much just to throw the money or you don't do enough when you've got the money and you've got potential targets that you could bring in to make your team legitimately better and you just choose not to do it. That's not a place where I see the Colts necessarily. I see the Colts being somewhere in the middle on free agency. I think that that's someplace that they are going to be able to make an impact. And I think it's someplace that not only does free agency directly affect how the teams draft, I think that they're going in, obviously, the beauty of all this with Chris Ballard coming into the organization

is that he will come into it with a plan. We've talked to George Bremer. He said that noticeably. You see the Colts didn't really seem like there was a year-to-year plan with free agency to the draft. It was kind of just, well, let's see what happens. Chris Ballard appears to have gotten the organization into a mode where there is a plan. That's a quality that we need, especially at the GM. So Brandon Williams was the first guy really well versed along the line, can play that nose tackle. He's an athletic dude. One of the probably the better free agents,

to be quite honest with you, that's out there on the market. Another guy that gets a lot of talk, also a defensive tackle, was out there for the Arizona Cardinals this past year in Calais Campbell. Calais Campbell is a major playmaker. There's no two ways about it. You heard about him all year, about how big of an impact he's made. He's an expensive guy as well. He's also 30 years old. We've talked about this. We're going to have 30-year-olds on this defense. We're going to have 30-year-olds that are brought in, possibly even on the offense. We don't know how much or how many, but there's going to be 30-year-olds on this roster brought in, guys. We can't think that everybody that's going to be brought in is going to be in their

mid-20s and still be good. People typically allow free agents to hit the free agent market for a reason. They're either not as good as they want them to be or there's better people available where they feel like they can upgrade through the draft in that position. So remember that going forward, just because typically people are free agents for a reason. So a lot of times it's money, just the same. It doesn't mean they're lacking the skills or whatever. A lot of times it's because teams can't afford them as well. So, Clayus Campbell is definitely going to be one of those guys for the Cardinals. Cardinals are cap strapped for sure. They got a bunch of guys that they need to resign. A lot of guys in their

secondary that they're going to have to take care of. And Clayus Campbell is one of the guys I just don't think they're going to be able to afford. Personally, I don't think that the Colts are going to go that route. I don't think that that would be a bad route necessarily. Although, like I said, he's going to be expensive. They could take him up, get him, but that's going to limit a lot of options about what they can do to round out a lot of other places of need too. Whereas I think the defensive line is someplace that they should probably try to target through the draft because I think they're okay along the line. Don't think they're great, obviously, but I think there's a lot of places on that defense that aren't even okay. And those are the places that they need to round out with

a free agent as well as probably one through the draft. So I wouldn't see, I just don't see a defensive line, whether it's Williams or Campbell getting an upgrade in free agency. It's possible because Zach Kerr is cheap and easily written off. He's been one of the guys that made the team, didn't expect him to. I think he was out of Delaware. I liked him when they signed him as an undrafted free agent. But when it comes to stacking talent, some of those guys who made the roster kind of didn't almost like walk-ons at college. You don't expect to make the roster to become fan favorites, so to speak, but eventually they got to go because the team has to upgrade and they aren't top tier talent. That's just the way it goes. Another one of the guys that he had on here was Jason Pierre-Paul.

Now, Pierre-Paul, after his incident, what, two years ago, came back and had a really good year in New York. 28 years old. He is definitely a guy who can rush the passer. He's actually pretty decent in coverage as well. You guys have watched him. You know his skill set. So it's not like I need to sit here and tell you everything you need to know about Jason Pierre-Paul. But do the Colts bring him in? He's actually, I mean, if you consider it a 4-3 D end, that's not really that much of a deal anymore. Like we've talked about several times, this league is so sub-package heavy that really base schemes really aren't a thing anymore. I mean, you can bring him in there.

He's a pass rusher to begin with, so you're going to be using him on late downs at a minimum also, but he's also a three-down player. So he's a solid tackler. He's an all-around ball player. He's going to be expensive as well. I wouldn't have a problem with them going after him just because that spot, that outside linebacker slash defensive end spot is an area where the Colts desperately need an influx of talent. 28 years old, still can get three to four good years out of him, I think. Whether or not, you know,

that's feasible, you know, that's left to be determined left to be determined. But the Colts have a great cap guy, a great salary guy, and I think that it's more than possible and feasible for the Colts to set up a solid contract with him to where he's not killing them against the cap every year. Not to mention, we talk about it every year, but it's usually right before the cap goes up. The salary cap's going up $10 million every single year. Whatever percentage he's going to be off this first initial year is probably the one you want to front load just a little bit because on the back end, the cap's going to go up so significantly even in the next three years more than likely. He's going to be a much less percentage off the cap by then, not really that big of a deal. So I kind of want

to balance that out, but also you want to get as much of him off the books, I think, as possible, because you're going to be drafting some guys at that position suited that you are definitely wanting to bring in and last for several years down the road. Another guy that has been kind of suited, I think it was by Pro Football Focus, that they've been kind of, I don't want to say mocking because he's a free agent, but one of the guys that they've said that would be a good fit for the Colts is a guard, a right guard at that, from Green Bay, TJ Lang. Now, being that it's Pro Football Focus that was given him,

saying that the Colts needed somebody like him. We'll look at their grade for what they had. And they had him as the eighth overall guard, graded out at an 87.0 overall, 92.9 in pass, and 76.9 in the run. Now, that 92.9 is second overall in pass blocking. That's a solid guy to bring in. I mean, we've talked about this over and over. We've talked about much, most of everything that we talk about. We've talked about several times, but we need to touch

on it. I mean, each time we talk about it because the context drives the argument. We've got a young offensive line. Haig, Good, even the Raven Clark there at right tackle. Everything that they do should be to upgrade this roster. With a young but still open game basically on the right side, the left side also needs a little work only in that we need backups over there as well. This possibly could give a way to allowing one of those guys to walk, namely possibly Harrison. I mean, just off the top of my head, they've got a backup in Blythe at center. He also can moonlight as a guard on either side. Haig can play guard, Good can play guard, but they also have to have a backup left tackle for Costanzo in case there's an injury. Both of those guys can also play tackle, whether it's left

tackle, right tackle. Left tackle seems to be someplace that the Colts haven't had to mess with much because Costanzo's been largely healthy. So bringing in a guy like TJ Lang, and he's been largely healthy over the last five seasons, from the last six seasons, actually. Ever since 2011, he's played at least 13 games. And that's something that the Colts need up front. Basically, ever since his third year, his first couple years, he didn't get a ton of play. But after that, he's gotten a lot of play.

So the Colts need that up front. This would be fantastic for the Colts, in my opinion. Do we need, desperately, an offensive lineman in free agency? I don't know. I wouldn't say yes or no, necessarily, because I think it's somewhere in the middle. So I don't know kind of fits right now. But if you're telling me that you're bringing in TJ Lang, I'm going to crack a smile. Because that's a guy who's not only high-rated, but he's been healthy over the past several seasons. He's been effective and he

was one of the top guards. I mean, if, whether you want to go, uh, you know, grade for grade with pro football focus or not, the issue is that he has been good. Okay. So he's been top 15 talent. Any way you look at it, whether you take grades or whether you take your eyeball test or another measuring stick. One way or another, he's been a top guard, tackle, offensive lineman in the league. That's somebody you bring in to bolster protection, especially the second rated or top five protection offensive lineman in the league. That's a fantastic move. That's something that the Colts could definitely use. It's not something I would say that they should go to try to spend a ton of money on. in the league. That's a fantastic move. That's something that the Colts could definitely use.

It's not something I would say that they should go to try to spend a ton of money on, but it's something that they should definitely consider. And if they're not going to go, you know, you want to eliminate the possibility or even the thought of having to mess with offensive line in a draft where offensive linemen are kind of, you know, meek, few and far between as far as really good or even quality, that's a great move. I mean, that free agency predicates how you draft. And if you're going to get a guy like TJ Lang in the building, then that predicates the fact that you can go almost strictly defense outside of possible running back

somewhere after the second round or in the second round, and then that really limits what your focus is throughout round or in the second round. And then that really limits what your focus is throughout the draft for the most part. You're not going to mess with offensive line, especially when, you know, after even the first couple of rounds here, the offensive line class drops off a freaking cliff. So I think that's a fantastic fit. I think it'd be a fantastic get. And we'll see, because we're only about a month away from free agency really ramping into high gear. That would be a guy that I would want to get on the first day of free agency and get him ready. So that would create a fantastic set of competition in camp and would really bolster our line.

I mean, that would set the offense in a really, really good place heading into the season, I mean, with or without whatever we do in the draft. So I think that would be something that would be fantastic. Of course, we also get into possible trade talk and all that good stuff. There's been a little bit of noise about Connor Barwin possibly being a trade partner or the Eagles being a trade partner for the Colts with Connor Barwin. I'm not a fan of this at all. A couple reasons. Yeah, he is at that 30-year-old threshold. He'll be 31 next year for sure.

And, you know, he has played a lot of games. I mean, 16 games since 2011. So good, good on that. But you've got five sacks out of him last year, 34 total tackles, both his least outputs since 2013 and tackle-wise worst since his rookie season. So what does he bring that the Colts would really be interested in trading in this? It would have to be a seventh round pick. I mean, I don't really see much else that the Colts would want to come off of any of their young talent. I mean, and basically any of their young talent is, you know basically any of their young talent is the team that's left because the majority of them are free agents this coming year. So trade, I don't know about trade.

Maybe. I mean, it really would have to be something that the Colts wouldn't be giving much up for. I'm not a big, I'm not totally worried about him. He's kind of an outside linebacker, defensive end hybrid as well. He can play inside as well, so he's got that going for him. He's just not a guy that I would want to trade for necessarily. I think that's an area that the Colts can upgrade on, but I also think that's a extreme stopgap situation. The guy that you really run into similar to Trent Cole, a lot of productivity over the years, but started to fall off after he turned 30 and hadn't. And obviously we saw that he didn't and couldn't recover from that. So I'm not a big fan of that. I'm not saying that he couldn't be,

but a lot of his drop isn't because of injury or anything like that. It's just been a solid decline. You know, he had 14.5 sacks in 2014, really good season out of him. But as far as his tackles, 48 was his high in 2013, and ultimately 62 when you consider assists as well. But ever since then, it's dropped off. So, and to be honest with you, anything else, he's never had more than seven sacks in a season other than 2011. So he's got two seasons with double digit sack numbers. The rest are, you know, seven and under, and that was only one season. Everything's five and three. So the productivity there just isn't consistent for me. Going to be 30, starting to decline.

No thanks. I'm not interested in that whatsoever. I'm going to cross that off my board, and I hope Chris Ballard is going to cross that off his board as well. So we get into something that typical fashion, everybody's talking about this mock draft or that mock draft. I've seen a lot of mocking Dalvin Cook to us in the first round. Brent Sobleski did the same thing. A lot of guys are just mocking running backs to us. They think the Colts desperately need a running back. Don't get me wrong. The Colts need a running back. I just think that the running back position is going to be more spaced out in this draft than the defensive ends, the edge rushers, the inside linebackers, than any of those positions are going to be. Not only that, but cornerback. There's going to be a run on all these defensive

positions, and that's going to space out the running backs getting drafted quite a bit, in my opinion. I wrote a piece for FanRag Sports yesterday, and that was totally based on Jamal Williams for the most part. Non-specific to Jamal Williams. Just in general, though, the Colts can wait on a running back. First round is not a necessity for the Colts to grab a running back. The running back class this year is pretty darn good. I really, really like Jamal Williams, like a lot, and I think he's going to be great, and I think the Colts could use him. He's a zone running back a little bit more, but he has that downhill approach to him as well, can take on defenders, especially in the second level, and has no problem doing it. He's also got really good vision.

He's got enough speed to break through the line. He doesn't necessarily have that breakaway speed, but if he's got linebackers chasing him, he's going to outrun them. I'm just not so sure he can outrun any defensive backs or anything like that. But picking up 20 to 30 yards is nice if you can scat past that second level and such. But he's got really quick, decisive feet. I really, really enjoyed watching his tape and like I said, wrote a piece about it. For FanRag Sports, you can go check that out. Basically, the entire thing is that they can wait on a running back. There's a lot of running backs that are very similar to that,

that may not be those top couple, three guys, but there are definitely enough of them that could come in and be that backup to Frank Gore in their rookie year, could take snaps back and forth with Robert Turbin if they re-signed him, and then could kind of take over that solid number one role, maybe even number two role, depending on what they do the next year. I have no problem with the Colts bringing in another guy in free agency as far as maybe not signing Robert Turbin, but maybe a guy like Murray out of Oakland, that would be okay. But they definitely would need a guy who has Jamal Williams size, like a 6'2", 220 guy that could come in and be that power guy when Murray is also in the fold. So that would be interesting

to see what they do. I wouldn't definitely think that if the Colts went running back in free agency that that would not be terms for them getting a running back in maybe the second, third, or fourth round. I think they still will, but I think that they're going to want to wait a little bit. I just don't think that they're going to go running back in the first round. A lot of guys, Derek Barnett, I've seen him mock to the Colts quite a bit in the first round. As of late, I think he's a quality guy who could come in there. Also, a lot of people are mocking Tack McKinley. I've seen him a lot to the Colts. I also actually seen McKinley a lot later in the first round. I'm not so sure how that's going to go, but I think the Colts definitely need a cornerback in the first three rounds as well.

I like the cornerback position in this draft. I think everybody does. We all know that the Colts are struggling right now. Vontae's not been maintaining his health. Patrick Robinson kind of looked a lot like stuff that we'd seen in the past, come in with high hopes at least of being at least a solid corner at number two and just not living up to the billing. We have Darius Butler, who for all intents and purposes is really not going to probably be able to play corner on the Colts if he is to be resigned. Obviously, we've talked about him being possibly resigned as a safety. He could still be that slot guy. I just don't think that he's reliable enough anymore to be that slot guy. They're just not quick enough, just not reactionary enough to really stand up in today's passing games. So

the Colts either need to do something in free agency there, but they definitely need a new, young, quality man corner out of this draft. Lots of guys to do it, and I have absolutely no problem with them doing it. So Colts are also going to need an inside linebacker desperately. So what are the Colts going to do? Are the Colts going to go with some of these top flight guys, or are they going to, you know, again, try to find somebody in free agency and then kind of try to take their nicks on the first year here with Antonio Morrison and Edwin Jackson with a younger guy here getting drafted. I don't know. It's hard to tell, but there's a few guys there and there's some quality at that position. So after that, that's kind of when the Colts, you know, I would presume that the Colts should

go running back second round. If they do, I think they'll be able to get Jamal Williams. If they wait, you know, everybody on draft Twitter, Colts Twitter, is in love with Kareem Hunt, the guy out of Toledo. I like him. I'm just not sold on him being able to be. He could be the guy that Josh Ferguson was supposed to be, but never turned out to be. In all fairness to Hunt, he was a solid receiver out of the backfield. So was Jamal Williams. Neither one of them had a

quarterback that could really hit them in stride. So it was hard to tell, but they were both good after the catch too. Even if they got hit right away, they could both lean forward, get quality yards after the catch and stuff like that. So there's plenty of running backs here, guys. Just don't flip when the Colts, you know, if you're used to reading these mocks and you think that's how everything's going to go, that's not the case. The Colts do not need a running back in the first round. If they do go running back in the first round, that's great. I just don't see it happening. So don't think that the Colts are bypassing a need simply because they don't follow everybody's mock draft. Basically, the Colts have a lot of options this year, and the Colts need to use those options, and they will. And I think that it'll be very exciting for very fun to watch Chris Ballard work. I think it'll be something that Colts fans will kind of remember this transition and

see how everything kind of moved from one regime to the other. And I'm for one, and we're really excited. I can't wait for draft day to come around. Uh, in the meantime, we get appeased with the, uh, scouting combine, a little bit of TV fun, the underwear Olympics, and then we get free agency, like ramping up like literally a couple of days after that. And that's really where the excitement starts all the way through the draft. So we'll just have to wait and see. It's going to be an exciting couple of months here. So I hope you guys are all strapped in and ready. And thank

you guys for joining me here on Monday. If you guys have any questions or comments, as always, you know, you can get ahold of me on Locked on Colts on Twitter, uh, M Dainley underscore NFL on Twitter as well. Always hit me up on the email at locked on Colts pod at gmail.com. Uh, like I said, let me know what you guys think about the show. Let me know if you guys like the duration, if you want it a little bit shorter, a little longer, whatever you guys think, you know, uh, let me know what you guys think about the show. Let me know if you guys like the duration, if you want it a little bit shorter, a little longer. Whatever you guys think. Let me know what you guys are thinking.

I'd love to hear your feedback. And as always, thank you guys for listening. You guys have been fantastic. The ratings and reviews on iTunes are getting more and more plentiful, and I appreciate it and enjoy it. I love being here for you guys every day, and I love you guys being here. So thank you all for joining me, and I'll talk to you tomorrow right here on Locked on Colts. You are Locked on Colts, your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts,

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